The inner part of תורה, the פנימיות of תורה is called, people call it קבלה. What does קבלה mean? Well, people think קבלה is קבלה, I don't know קבלה, you pronounce it קבלה and it becomes something fancy as קבלה. What does the word קבלה mean? What is the actual translation of the word? Well, the word קבלה in Hebrew means received, because what we're taught in the לימוד, in the learning of קבלה, these are things that we received. Where did we receive it from? Well, we received it from משה רבינו by הר סיני. When משה רבינו received the תורה and transferred the תורה to the יידן, משה קיבל תורה מסיני ומסרה ליהושע, משה took the תורה, received the תורה, and gave it over to יהושע, and then it was transmitted to all the יידן, this included also the פנימיות התורה. This included all parts of תורה, all aspects of תורה, and as I'll discuss soon, we know we have four parts to the תורה: פשט, רמז, דרוש, סוד. You're able to learn the תורה in four different ways: פשט, simple פשט; רמז are hints; דרוש is the way we learn one thing from another; סוד is the secrets. And משה רבינו, when he received the תורה, he received all parts of the תורה and he transmitted it to the יידן. So קבלה is that we learn different things that were transmitted by משה רבינו to the יידן, and that's what we learn. Also קבלה includes that certain things the מקובלים, the great חכמים, the sages of קבלה, received it from אליהו הנביא. That's like קבלה, they received it from אליהו הנביא gave them over different things, and that's where they took it. That's no question, we all know that תורה לא בשמים היא. You can't פסקן a דין from שמים, so how could we say that אליהו הנביא gave it over? Because that's only talking about the הלכה. When it comes to פסק what to do in the הלכה, we can't פסקן in שמים, even if a בת קול, a voice from heaven will tell you, it doesn't mean that we have to keep it, because it has to go according to what the חכמים down here learn out. But when it talks about the interpretations of תורה, that was given, even could be given from אליהו הנביא. And that's what קבלה is, that these are things that we study, and I'll explain, everyone knows what it is, but I'll explain it in more detail, but it's called קבלה because these are things that we could only learn what we received. But the truth is, every other part of תורה was also received by משה רבינו from השם and then was transmitted to the יידן. We know משה קיבל תורה מסיני, he received the whole תורה, and a person cannot make up his own הלכות or make up his own ענינים. Everything has to be based on the rules that השם gave over to משה רבינו. So why is this different that we call this קבלה because this was received? The whole תורה was received! The difference is that the whole תורה, other parts of the תורה, there are different rules that we have, and people, חכמים, could come using these rules and come up with חידושים, come up with new ideas. And we say as long as it's based on the כללים and the rules given by משה רבינו, if it's not based on the rules given by משה רבינו, then it's nothing, but if it's based on the rules given by משה רבינו, you could come up with all kinds of different חידושים and make up new ענינים that are based on these rules. But when it comes to קבלה, you can't make up any new ענינים. You only could try to understand what were we received, but you can't make up anything new. For instance, we know, just to use an example, in קבלה we learn there are עשר ספירות, there are ten ספירות. Nobody could ever come up and make up that there is an eleventh ספירה. There are things that are given over, and we can only learn and try to understand deeper and deeper. So basically, it's something that we were מקבל, we received, and then we study what we received, but there is nothing more that we could do by adding and making חידושים. Actually, there is a ווארט that it says in ספרים on the פסוק where it says, ארור האיש אשר יעשה פסל ומסכה ושם בסתר. Cursed is a person that makes a פסל ומסכה, makes an image, ושם בסתר, puts it in hiding. That's the simple פשט: if a person makes an עבודה זרה, an idol, and puts it away some place in hiding, this is one of the curses. But there is a פשט in ספרים that says ארור האיש אשר יעשה פסל ומסכה, that cursed is a person that makes a פסל ומסכה, makes his own ideas, ושם, and he puts it בסתר, in סתרי תורה. He puts it in the hidden secrets of the תורה. There we only take what we're given, we learn more and more and more. Only a person that is able to receive it directly from אליהו הנביא מן השמים can come up with new thoughts in the ענין of קבלה, in פנימיות התורה, but a regular person cannot come up and make a חידוש in the ענינים of סתרי תורה, פנימיות התורה. And the question is why? Just like in the other parts of תורה, we know that the תורה was given and there are כללים, and we expect a person to make חידושים. Why don't we say it when it comes to learning קבלה, that there it's קבלה, we are מקבל, we're only מקבל, and we can't do much, we can't add to it, we can just try to understand that what we're מקבל? The answer to this is there is another word for קבלה, and as I mentioned before, this is called סוד. There are four ways we study the תורה: פשט, רמז, דרוש, סוד. קבלה is called סוד. They're called סודות התורה, the secrets of the תורה. סתרי תורה, the hidden parts, the secrets of the תורה. Why are they called secrets? Why is the ענין of קבלה called secrets? What is it, a secret? Now, some people think that the reason it's called a secret because not too many people learn it. If not too many people learn it, so for most people it's a secret, they don't know, like something that I know and someone else doesn't know, it's a secret. That's not the פשט. The reason is not because it's something that's learned by very few, so most of the people don't know about it, don't know it, so it's a secret. קבלה is a סוד בעצם. These are ענינים that are essentially secretive, meaning why? Because קבלה basically is explaining the deeper meaning of תורה and מצות, the spiritual meaning behind every word of תורה and behind every מצוה. When we do a מצוה, which is a physical מצוה that we do because the תורה says so, but the every מצוה has a lot of spiritual meaning in spiritual worlds, and higher רוחניותדיקע ענינים. Every word of תורה has a deeper meaning, has a spiritual meaning. When it comes to spiritual things, we, human beings, can't really grasp it. We are physical and we live in the physical world, so spiritual things are בעצם, by nature, secretive to us. A secret means something that we cannot grasp, something that's beyond us, we can't understand if we can have it. And since this is called סודות, these are secret, that's why it's called secrets, because we're dealing with the secrets of תורה, the spiritual aspect of תורה. And if you look into קבלה, we will see they take פסוקים and they take גמרות, and explain the spiritual meaning. That even though the גמרא is simply is talking about something very physical, like שנים אוחזין בטלית, two people are holding onto a טלית, and one guy says, אני מצאתיה, and the other guy says, אני מצאתיה, this says, I found it, this says, I found it, comes קבלה, comes פנימיות התורה and it says this means deeper things. This is talking about נשמות and talking about מלאכים and talking about the higher worlds, all kinds of spiritual things. And that's what קבלה does. These are secretive things, these are things we can't come and give our opinion. Things that deal with physical things, מצות deal with physical things, given by God, and I'll explain soon what it is, but since we're dealing with the physical part of it, we have a connection to it because we are physical people. So if we use the proper כללים of the תורה, we can do it. But here we're dealing with spiritual things, and we physical human beings are not able to deal and to make up, and because to us it's a secret בעצם. And it's not only קבלה doesn't only deal with the secrets of the תורה and מצות, it also deals with the secrets of creation. It tells us what is the true meaning of the creation, what is behind the creation, what is in every aspect of creation, what really is it. The creation באמת represents השם, and the כח of השם, and all the different things it talks about. And there are secrets in creation. And these are the spiritual secrets of creation, and that's something that we have to accept, something that we received, and whatever we were given, that's what we have. We can't come and give our opinions and make up things when it comes to such ענינים which are spiritual. And when we talk about the creation, there are secrets in the creation, spiritual secrets in why השם created the world, what the creation means, and all the other details. Just like בגשמיות there are secrets in the creation. There were certain things, physical things in the creation which was a secret for many, many years. Just to use an example, the power of electricity, it's not something new, not something that became 200 years ago, 300, whatever it was. It was always there from the beginning of creation, but it was a secret. No one knew about it till they figured it out, they figured out what it is. And not only that, sometimes we're even talking about a secret of creation in the physical sense, which is in the essence of creation, not only in a detail, a certain power, a כח like this, a כח like this. For instance, when they figured out that everything is made up of atoms, I'm just using as an example, this means that everything in the world, the נקודה of everything is atoms, and they split the atom, this is a This was not known before, and if it was not known before, it was a secret for thousands of years, and it's the essence of what creation really is about in the physical sense. So too, there are spiritual secrets of creation. So, קבלה comes and tells us the spiritual secrets, the spiritual things behind every word of תורה and every מצוה, the spiritual meaning secrets behind the creation and all the details of creation, and being that these are spiritual things, therefore, this is something that we have to take what we were given, because we have no way of giving our opinion and coming to make up something new. While when it comes to physical things, we are physical and השם gave us the כללים and He said, \"You have to use your physical brain.\" One of the rules השם gave us in the way to study תורה is you have to use your own שכל to figure out, based on the rules, what the הלכה is. So, this is something we could come to it because this is physical and we use our physical שכל. But when it comes to things which are called secrets, not because people don't know about it, that's why it's a secret, it's the ענין itself is something that's secretive of human beings, because it's spiritual. It talks about higher worlds, it talks about godliness, it talks about the ענינים רוחניים. So, therefore, there, we just accept, try to understand, but we can't add to it or say anything, any חידושים on our own, unless it's a חידוש in the way to understand it. Only צדיקים like the אריז״ל and people like that were able because they received it טאקע מן השמים, from אליהו הנביא, etc. Now, I want to explain this more in detail, what this really means. We know the famous statement of the של״ה. The של״ה says that there are people who think that התורה מדברת בתחתונים ורומזת בעליונים. People think that the תורה talks about things down here, talks about physical things: a cow, שור שנגח את הפרה, about a טלית, even the מצוות are physical מצוות, but everyone knows there is a רמז in the תורה, there is a hint in the תורה to higher ענינים בעליונים, in the higher worlds. So, the, well, של״ה says it's a mistake. התורה מדברת בעליונים ורומזת בתחתונים. The תורה talks about לכתחילה ענינים רוחני and spiritual things in higher worlds, and the physical part of it that's come down here, that's a רמז, that's the hint. In other words, the real, real part of תורה is every word of תורה has some spiritual meaning in the higher worlds, and there, גופא itself, there are many, many levels, level higher and than higher and higher, all in the spirituality part of it. It also hints to the תחתונים. The way we have it down here, that's the hint of the way it's in עליונים. And I'll explain in a moment what that means, but we have to say it. It's not just because it says in the ספרים this is what it is, it's only logical to say that that's the way the תורה is, because we know the תורה came from השם. It says that התורה קדמה לעולם, the תורה came before the world. Now, \"before\" doesn't only mean in time, but \"before\" mainly means in level, it's a מדרגה before, before creation, higher than creation of the world. Then, I don't understand, if the תורה is higher than creation, when the תורה started, so to speak, there was no ox yet, there was no cow, there was no טלית, all these things that we learn about in the משניות, in the גמרא, didn't exist yet! So, how could you say that the תורה talks about a, the תורה talks about a cow, a שור, an ox that gored a cow, or a person arguing over a טלית, in that level there was no טלית yet! There was no שור yet, because it's קדמה לעולם, this is part of the creation! The תורה is there before the creation, so can the תורה talk about it? I'll tell you even more. We know that the תורה is חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, the תורה is the wisdom of השם. The מצוות are רצונו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, the will of השם. Now, השם is definitely beyond creation, He's the Creator. So, השם's חכמה is about an ox that gored a cow, and we have a שאלה what happened there and this and that's what השם has in His mind? That's His חכמה? And not only is that His חכמה, but we know that the רמב״ם says that by the אייבערשטער, it's not that He has חכמה, the תורה is His חכמה, הוא וחכמתו אחד, He and His חכמה are one. It's not like by a human being, that a person is a human being and he has something he understands. By השם, you can't say that, that means there's חס ושלום two parts to Him. So, השם and His חכמה are one. The רמב״ם does add that דבר זה אי אפשר, something like this we can't understand how it is, but that's the fact! The fact is that the תורה is the חכמה of השם, the מצוות are the will of השם. Now, השם is certainly beyond the world, so we say that the חכמה of השם, and this is השם Himself, as the רמב״ם says, is the שור שנגח את הפרה? Is the is the ox? So, in that level of תורה, the way it started off, the way it is by השם, we Talk about an ox? We have to say, it's only logical to say that there it's spiritual things. And what happened was, these spiritual ideas that are there in the mind of השם כביכול, whatever that means, but it's חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, in the תורה which is there before the world was created, there they are spiritual things, and these spiritual things were נשתלשל, came down, and were נתלבש and got dressed into physical things that we learn about. And therefore, the real essence of שור שנגח את הפרה, שור איז נישט קיין שור, און א פרה איז נישט קיין פרה. שור means something למעלה, it's a spiritual thing. And a פרה is some spiritual thing למעלה, which is חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא. But that שור שנגח את הפרה, השם took it and wanted to give it to us, and I'll explain what happened, and therefore he put it into a way, he lowered it down, as it says in תניא פרק ד', that the תורה started all the way, ירדה בסתר המדרגות, it came down בהשתלשלות, one level to another level, lower and lower and lower, till finally that same idea came down into a physical ox and a physical פרה, and the שור and we're talking about a שור שנגח את הפרה, the ox who gored the cow. So this is really what the של\"ה means, that it's not התורה מדברת בתחתונים ורומזת בעליונים, the תורה is talking down here and it hints to things למעלה. The opposite. התורה מדברת בעליונים, the main part of תורה is the way it's in the חכמה of השם, which is not talking about a physical שור. But רומזת בתחתונים, it comes and from there, where this is the essence of תורה, the way it is in its full force, the way it's originally, came down, and it came down, נתלבש, was put into, and נשתלשל to a שור and a פרה and all the different things we learn about. And this is what קבלה is. קבלה is to work backwards. To take the שור שנגח את הפרה and now see what is the spiritual meaning of it. And we go backwards to the higher and higher spiritual level, which is this is the real source of the תורה. And I'll explain it even in more detail. We know there's a פסוק that calls the תורה an interesting expression. It's called משל הקדמוני. The תורה is called the משל of the קדמונו של עולם, the משל of השם. A משל is a parable. The תורה is referred to as the משל, the parable. There is a concept of a משל and a נמשל. A משל is a parable you give to some idea. The idea is called the נמשל, the parable that you're giving is the משל. What's the idea of a משל? When a person wants to explain something, a deep thought to somebody, and the person is not capable of understanding. What do you do? You give a משל. And the משל takes that same idea and lowers it, you give a parable, and makes the person who didn't understand the idea now, because it was put into a story, which means now it's not as abstract as it was before, it's put in some story, and he gets the same idea. Now it doesn't mean when a person wants to give a משל, the person changes the idea. Because he doesn't understand it, I'll give him a different thought. No, no. Then it's not a משל, then it's a different idea. A משל means he's giving the same, same idea, but he puts it in a lower level, so he'll be able to understand it. Now what happens if there is a person that doesn't even understand through the משל? You know what you do? You give him a משל to the משל, you give another משל. And when you have the second משל, that that person that didn't get it at first, because you lowered it to a more concrete thing, lower, then he will get it. Now does that mean that you changed the idea? Again, that wouldn't be called a משל, then it's a new thought. So you lowered it two levels, but you still have that first thought that you had, that abstract thought is still here, but it's in the לבוש, it's dressed up in the משל. It says in פסוק by שלמה המלך, an interesting פסוק: וידבר שלמה שלשת אלפים משל. שלמה המלך spoke 3,000 thousand משלים, 3,000 parables. Now people think the פשט is in his lifetime he said 3,000 משלים. He gave 3,000 parables. That's how smart he was. It says in the גמרא that ר' מאיר gave 300 משלים. 300 משלים, imagine, he gave 300 parables in his lifetime. I don't know what's the great thing about it. It says משמת ר' מאיר בטלו מושלי משלים. When ר' מאיר died, there were no more people who could give a משל. Is that so? Everyone knows the דובנער מגיד was an expert in giving משלים. I don't know, maybe even gave more than 300 משלים. What do you mean ר' מאיר gave 300 משלים and after this nobody could give a משל? And what's so big things, so he gave 300 משלים in his lifetime. שלמה המלך gave six, 3,000. That's not the פשט. חסידות says that's not the פשט. The פשט is ויחכם שלמה מכל האדם, שלמה was the smartest person. When שלמה said a thought, it was so deep that for an ordinary human being to understand it, it had to go down 3,000 levels. One משל after another after another. Some people understood the first משל, the great חכמים, some understood the second, there were some had to go down 3,000 משלים. ר' מאיר was not like שלמה המלך, but he was also so deep, he had to go down 300 משלים. That's what the גמרא says, that ידעו חכמים שאין בדורו כר' מאיר, the חכמים knew that in ר' מאיר's generation there was no one like him. ולמה לא קבעו הלכה כמותו? So why didn't they say the הלכה always like ר' מאיר? They knew he's the smartest. מפני שלא ירדו חכמים לסוף דעתו, the חכמים didn't understand the depth of his of his ideas, so they couldn't פסקן like him. What the פשט they couldn't understand? His mind was so deep that when he said, it wasn't clear, wasn't understood, it was too abstract, too great. But for an ordinary person to understand ר' מאיר's thoughts, it had to go on 300 משלים. שלמה המלך had to go down 3,000 משלים. Now let's look at this: when a person on the side would try to compare the original thought of שלמה המלך with the lowest level, level number 3,000, believe me, he'd never ever see the comparison, the connection. 3,000 levels lower! But the truth is, as long as we call all of these levels משל, we don't say he changed the idea. All he did, what we call it משלים, that means that in each משל the original thought was there, and therefore the one that gave the משל, שלמה המלך who gave the 3,000 משלים, every time he saw said another משל, to him the משל was not a cover-up on his thought, because he knows the thought, so he to him this is just another way of expressing it. A person down there who saw the lowest level, to him it seemed like something else, no comparison. This is the bottom line was so simple, so low, so simple, but in it, it contained the full, full thought that שלמה המלך had in his original idea. Because if it would be a different idea, if it would not contain it, then it's not a משל! Call it something else! This is the פשט the word משל. When we say that the תורה is called משל הקדמוני, the תורה is the משל of השם, this is exactly what it means. Originally the תורה is the חכמה of השם, and the חכמה of השם deals with the highest, deepest ענינים in רוחניות'דיקע ענינים. That's what the תורה is. And then ירדה, the תורה came down and was נשתלשל and נתלבש in one level, and what do we call that lower level? A משל. We don't say חס ושלום that the תורה down here or in the next level changed from the way the תורה is by השם, then the תורה that came down is not the חכמה of השם, it's a different תורה, חס ושלום! It's the same חכמה of השם, but it came down a lower level. But till finally it went down so many levels, that every level it became another משל, כאילו, another משל, another משל, and finally what happened? It came down to the lowest משל. What's the lowest משל? שור שנגח את הפרה! So it turned out that the same חכמה of השם, the same חכמה of השם, I'm stressing it again and again, no one should ever come out from what I said, \"Oh, so I'm saying the תורה by השם is is not the same thing as the תורה that we have, and we say the תורה is חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא.\" חס ושלום, it's the same תורה of השם, but it's נתלבש in the way שור שנגח את הפרה. So when we're learning שור שנגח את הפרה, this is the משל of the deepest thoughts in spirituality, רוחניות that's there, and we're learning that, but we're learning it through the משל, like the person who couldn't take the original שכל and had to listen to the number משל number 3,000. This is why the תורה is called משל הקדמוני. This is what פנימיות התורה is. פנימיות התורה is to work now the other way: come to the שור שנגח את הפרה, and we know for sure that the שור שנגח את הפרה, this is the לבוש the way the אויבערשטער gave us, and it's the חכמה of השם, and we learn it and we're מקיים the מצוה of תורה, because this is the way the אויבערשטער gave us His חכמה in this לבוש, but we know in it בעצם is hidden deeper ענינים. And קבלה, פנימיות התורה comes to extract and try to explain what is the depth of that. Now obviously as much as קבלה we'd learn and as much as קבלה ספרים there are, it probably doesn't even touch the tip of the iceberg of the רוחניות'דיקע ענינים, because there are so many layers of רוחניות'דיקע ענינים in every word of תורה, that all we're doing is going a little bit higher than the גשמיות and going a little bit higher and higher, sometimes we go deeper and deeper. So we went to three layers, five layers. There are millions of layers of this חכמה, the spirituality, but this is what קבלה, פנימיות התורה is doing. It's taking the way the תורה is למעלה, like the של״ה says התורה מדברת בעליונים, try to see the עליונים how it's למעלה, and this to us will be the רמז to למעלה. And because of that, through in קבלה we also have, like I said before, learning the secrets of the creation. Because באמת the creation and the תורה go together, because we know what it says in the זוהר, אסתכל באורייתא וברא עלמא, ה׳ looked into the תורה and created the world, or it says in מדרש the תורה was the blueprints of the world. So it's in the תורה that from the תורה we get the world became. So there are secrets in the תורה, spiritual secrets in the תורה. And it came down here as a form of a physical world, but in truth, there is secrets and deeper things in the תורה. And this is what קבלה is. קבלה is, so to speak, let's say, to work backwards and to go figure out what's in the higher level above, the way we see it in the לבוש, in the משל, the way it was given to us. So what we have is the תורה of ה׳, it's חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא when we learn a גמרא and a משנה, and we learn a הלכה, but it's all the way we take the חכמה of ה׳ the way ה׳ gave us. But we have to remember there is much more to it, because this is not originally the חכמה, this is the חכמה is in it, but this is not originally what it is. And because of that, since we're dealing here not with the way it's in the לבוש, but the way it's in the original, trying to get more closer to the original way, we can't give any ideas. We can't make up any things, because these are things that is out of our realm, it's out of our world, because we're dealing with things which are beyond, beyond the לבוש, beyond the משל. And therefore, where do we get this? This was given by משה רבינו. ה׳ gave it to משה רבינו, and משה רבינו gave it to the אידן. And it's all included in what משה רבינו said. בכלל we know כל מה שתלמיד ותיק עתיד לחדש ניתן למשה מסיני, whatever any sage throughout generations who would come up with ideas was given to משה רבינו already. So by מתן תורה, משה רבינו gave the קבלה to all the אידן. As a matter of fact, the רבי brings out an interesting point that if you look at it, the פנימיות התורה, קבלה, or the פנימיות התורה, the inner part of תורה, by מתן תורה was more revealed than the revealed part of תורה. Because it says by מתן תורה, when ה׳ came down to הר סיני to give the תורה, it says He came down with the מעשה מרכבה, He came down with all the מלאכים, and the מרכבה, the chariot, the Godly chariot, with all the it said רש״י even says He opened up all the heavens, and the אידן saw. So all the things we learn about in קבלה, all the spiritual things we learn about in קבלה, the אידן saw in a revealed way at the moment of מתן תורה. The simple part of תורה, the revealed part of תורה, that they didn't see. All they heard were the עשרת הדברות, the Ten Commandments. And רש״י brings that רב סעדיה גאון shows how in the Ten Commandments you have hidden all the תרי״ג מצוות, all 613 מצוות, which basically means the whole תורה is there. But the whole תורה, הלכות, and every מצוה in the עשרת הדברות is hidden. We don't see it, we just see the few things that it says there. But the פנימיות ענין, if the פנימיות, the קבלה, the spiritual things, that they're already has saw it in a revealed way. But that's just by the way, but the point I'm trying to make is that this was something that was given then. The only thing is it was not studied by most people. The אידן got it, the rest of the תורה was studied by כלל ישראל, by everybody, and this part of תורה, which are the secrets behind everything in תורה, was לכתחילה given in such a way that because these are secretive things, which I said, not secret from somebody, they're secret from the world, they're secretive things of the spiritual, these things were not studied by סתם people, not everybody could able to study it. So there were only select few, certain groups, we call them יחידי סגולה, special people who had these groups who studied קבלה at the time after מתן תורה. And that's how it went on from generation to generation, that only special people, with special select groups, continued studying the פנימיות התורה that was given by הר סיני by משה רבינו. And most people didn't study it, and it's called סוד for that reason also, but that's not the main reason. The main reason is because it's a secretive thing, but it was also secret for most people, because most people were not ready for it, were not able to get connected to this because it's too spiritual. And that's how it went on for many generations. Till it came to the time of the רשב״י. רב שמעון בן יוחאי was the first one who have openly, and other תנאים, but he mainly openly learned קבלה, had a ישיבה and taught קבלה, wrote the ספר הזהר which is the basic ideas of קבלה, and then it started already becoming more open, more revealed. Someone told me he saw a letter from the רבי which I never saw it and I don't know if it's true. Even after so many letters of the רבי were printed, I looked for this letter and I never saw it, but someone told this to me, he saw this letter years ago. So, again, I'm saying I don't know how reliable this is, whatever, he told me that someone asked the רבי that if you look in some of these Chinese writings from 3,000 years ago, 2,000 years ago, you find some thoughts there, some ideas which seem to be in קבלה, and he says, probably he says, that shows that the מקובלים, the קבלה-ists, the people took it from, חס ושלום, רחמנא ליצלן, from the Chinese, it came from there because their ספרים go back 3,500, to 3,000 years ago, 2,500, whatever, I don't know how many years ago. Because otherwise how would they know these ideas? And the רבי answered him, \"I'll tell you what happened.\" That's what he says. Now, again, I don't know if this is so, but this is just I'm I'm making a לכתחילה מחאה. I don't know if it's true, but this is what the רבי answered, he says: That since after מתן תורה, there were groups constantly, every generation continued select groups who learned קבלה. In the time of שלמה המלך, we know that גוים, חכמים from the גוים, this great smart people from the גוים, the scholars came to ארץ ישראל to study חכמה. We all know that. And they came and they studied from שלמה המלך, they studied from other אידן. Some of these גויישה scholars managed to penetrate into this small, select groups of אידן who studied פנימיות התורה those years. And then they went back to their country and they wrote it down. So it's not חס ושלום that קבלה took it from them, but they took it from קבלה, from תורה. But anyway, getting back to the point. So it went on like this till the רשב״י, and by the רשב״י already it started more, that's when the ספר הזהר was written, and it became closer to the people and more people started learning. And it went on as the generations went on. It became more and more. We know that רמב״ן later, we know, learned קבלה and he wrote in his ספרים קבלה things על פי קבלה. The ריטב״א, the רשב״א, they learned קבלה. We even have a tradition that the רמב״ם learned קבלה. There are some who hold that the רמב״ם didn't see the זוהר and the רמב״ם didn't learn קבלה, but we in ליובאוויטש have a tradition knowing that the רמב״ם did learn קבלה. We have a קבלה, a tradition from the בעל שם טוב that the רמב״ם בפירוש learned קבלה. Actually, the רבי even brings out in a few places how certain הלכות in the רמב״ם are based on the זוהר, and if you compare, sometimes you see word for word, the זוהר is in Aramaic, the רמב״ם is in Hebrew, word for word from the זוהר. There is a הלכה that the ראגאטשאווער says the רמב״ם says no source for it. The רמב״ם says he heard that this פאות have to be 40 hairs, so the ראגאטשאווער says because על פי קבלה עפעס פאות דא have to do with 40, קבליסטיק reason. Certainly the מורה נבוכים, the Guide for the Perplexed, which has many ideas which sound very strange, in truth they are all based on קבלה. So there were קבלה that was learned, but mainly it went on like this, still not so spread till the אריז״ל. The holy אריז״ל, he officially opened a ישיבה where you learned קבלה, and he taught קבלה. And he was considered the biggest מקובל in maybe in all generations. And he wrote, actually his תלמיד, רב חיים ויטאל, writes in his name, that from his time on, מצוה לגלות זאת החכמה. Now you have to reveal it. Now you have to reveal this חכמה, it's not to be hidden anymore. And the truth is, from him on, from his time on, started ישיבות learning פנימיות התורה. After him came רב אליהו בעל שם, then came רב יואל בעל שם, then came רב אדם בעל שם, then came the בעל שם טוב, which was all a continuation of the אריז״ל and the study of קבלה. Now we know that the בעל שם טוב opened up the דרך החסידות, which is a whole דרך in עבודת השם, but it's all based on the basis of קבלה. And people think that the whole dispute by אידן, the חסידים and the מתנגדים against the בעל שם טוב, against חסידות, it didn't start then, it didn't start from the time of the בעל שם טוב. From the time of the אריז״ל on, after his time and a little on, there were always two מחנות, two camps by אידן: some were for the study of קבלה and some were against the study of קבלה. And as it went on, manifested manifest itself till finally turned into the דרך of בעל שם טוב, it became much stronger. That's when the fight, so to speak, the dispute came stronger, but it's all a המשך to the study of קבלה. And the בעל שם טוב brought down all the ענינים, and this is all based on קבלה. And it came on to the מגיד and then to the אלטער רבי, who the אלטער רבי took the ענינים in קבלה and brought it down in such a way that we should be able to understand it better. One of the reasons people were against קבלה is because when we're learning about spiritual things, you're able to be מגשם it. We learn about spiritual things, but we use terms, physical terms, because we, human beings, cannot speak about spiritual things, we don't have the terms for it, so we use physical terms. So people might take these terms and think that it's physical. When we speak about, use an example of א\"ק, there's a level called א\"ק, which means אדם קדמון, oh, it's a human being. Actually, as I'm just saying it as a joke, but I saw a ספר which has a picture of א\"ק, you ever saw א\"ק? A picture of א\"ק, I know what he looks like. It's a joke, so people could be מגשם it. So they said you got to be careful. Came the אלטער רבי, and the אלטער רבי took the thoughts of קבלה and brought it out into חסידות, which means חסידות חב\"ד, that these are the ideas, the spiritual ideas, when he's מסביר he explains in such a way that a person should understand that it's not physical, it's spiritual. But this is all a המשך to the בעל שם טוב, a המשך, a continuation to the אריז\"ל, a continuation to the רשב\"י, a continuation to משה רבינו. And the אריז\"ל said, \"Now we have to start learning the קבלה.\" And this is how it went on from generation to generation in the רביים, and this is what we have to do. So to learn קבלה in a very simple way, exactly the way it's written in קבלה without trying to understand it, like some people try, for that you have to be a big person, true. Just to take קבלה as it is. But what חסידות did took the קבליסטיק ideas and brought it down in such a way that we are כלים, we are vessels to receive it, to accept it and to study it and to get a little bit of a sight in the תורה, in the truth of the תורה the way the תורה is in the original source, and beyond the לבוש. Now חס ושלום, again I'm repeating it, not that what we תורה we learn of שור שנגח את הפרה is not תורה, this is the way the אויבערשטער he made the לבוש, so it's his תורה, but in it is hidden the way it is in the חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא originally. But the only question that we could come up with is if this is so, and the סודות התורה is secretive and it's special it's it's רוחניות and we are not כלים physically for it, why is it that only from the אריז\"ל's time and certain later on from the בעל שם טוב, when the משיח told the בעל שם טוב \"יפוצו מעינותיך חוצה\" that you have to spread your wellsprings, which is basically the wellsprings of the פנימיות התורה, the inner part of the תורה in a form of חסידות, but why is it now more important than before? If it's an important thing, why wasn't it important before? Why is it only important now? And the answer is we said that this is something that we cannot really have because these are spiritual things and we are physical, spirituality is far from us, it's secretive from us, and that's why we can't have it. But this is only now. When משיח will come, everything will change. When משיח will come, the נביא says \"ונגלה כבוד ה'\", the glory the כבוד of ה' will be revealed, \"וראו כל בשר יחדו כי פי ה' דבר\", the whole flesh will see that ה' spoke, the words of ה' spoke. So then the spirituality will be revealed to us. Now, we don't see spirituality. What we see is the physicality, we do not the materialistic things, we do not see spirituality, that's why it's a סוד, it's a secret, spirituality is a secret from us. You got to be a very, very special high level to connect yourself to spirituality. And these people who are very high level, they lived in their lifetime similar to the way it will be when משיח will come. We know what the אלטער רבי said בנוגע the רשב\"י, ר' שמעון בן יוחאי, that to him there was no חורבן בית המקדש, spirituality was like in the time of the בית המקדש and even more it says, like in the time of משיח. So he טאקע saw in his lifetime, he saw גילוי אלקות, to him spirituality was something that he saw. So he had קבלה, and his תלמידים were able to. And same thing with other צדיקים, they lived that way. למשל the famous story with ר' מענדעלע האראדאקער or they call him ר' מענדעלע וויטעבסקער, that he moved to ארץ ישראל and he lived in טבריה, and then once he came to ירושלים and he was in someone's house, and then there was a some משוגענער who went up on the הר הזיתים and started blowing שופר. When you hear שופר from הר הזיתים, נו what did people think? Says \"ועמדו רגליו על הר הזיתים\", משיח is here! And ר' מענדעלע happened to be in ירושלים, so they right away ran to ר' מענדעלע to tell him, you know, to ask him what's going on. So they came in, and they said to him, so he went over to the window, opened the window, stuck his nose out, \"ס'שמעקט נישט משיח\". I don't smell משיח. But the חסידים asked, one thing is clear, if משיח would come, he would smell it in his house. Why did he have to open the window? Because in his house it always smelled משיח. He was on a level that always felt גילוי אלקות. So these people, but most people are not like that. When משיח will come, that is going to be. So when משיח will come, what's going to happen then? If we'll be spiritual, then these secrets won't be secrets anymore. It won't be secrets because it's only a secret because we're physical, so to us that's something removed. It won't be a secret anymore. So what will be the main learning when משיח will come? Then we'll be able to learn, everybody will be able to learn the פנימיות התורה, because that's going to be to us normal. Not only that, being that this is the נמשל, this is the essence of the תורה, so if you're able to learn the essence or to learn the תורה in the משל, why should you learn the משל? Why should you learn the תורה the way it's in the שור שנגח? We'll לכתחילה learn this in a higher form. That's what טאקע says, רש\"י in in שיר השירים, רש\"י, this is not from קבלה or חסידות, רש\"י in שיר השירים says clearly on the פסוק ישקני מנשיקות פיהו, רש\"י says that when משיח will come, we're going to learn the secrets of תורה. There'll be revealed the secrets of תורה. And that will be the real learn, the main learning. As a matter of fact, there's a statement in a מדרש which is a very strange statement. And if it doesn't have the proper explanation, don't ever repeat it to anybody. But if you repeat it with the explanation, then it's right, because people will say you're crazy. Says in מדרש like this, תורתו, תורה של עולם הזה כהבל לגבי תורתו של משיח. The תורה that we learn now is like stupidity compared to the תורה of משיח. Stupidity, stupid ideas, תורה we're talking. I mean if you say it to somebody, say this is, ooh, I don't want to even use the words you could say. The פשט is what we learn now, we're learning תורה of השם, but in a משל form, in the form of the ox and the cow, which is the words of השם, but it's in a משל. When you see the נמשל, now take this משל, the משל number 3,000 of שלמה המלך and compare it to the original סברא, so far apart! The only reason we need the lowest one because we can't understand the higher one. Imagine a person who's very who's able who's very smart, able to understand the original idea. Why in the world would he spend the time learning the third 3,000th level the משל when he can learn the original idea? Even though even though he will be learning the the number 3,000, he'll still be learning the the the same idea. But why should we do that? So when משיח will come, since we we will become spiritual and we will have this feeling and seeing and understanding of the spirituality, so then we will learn the תורה, the פנימיות התורה, much more even than now. Because now we only learn a level a little bit beyond the way it's in the in the משל. The שור is a little bit higher than the regular ox. But there are so many, so many higher levels, and we're going to go higher and higher and higher when משיח will come. Now as it gets close to משיח, we have to prepare ourselves to the coming of משיח. Now how does a person prepare himself to something he wants to really appreciate? Well, I think בגשמיות, if a person is going to a musical concert that he wants to really appreciate the music, what's he going to do? He's going to study art? He'll study music. If a person wants to go to an art exhibition and he wants to appreciate the art, he's going to study art. If we go we are getting now closer to the time of משיח, and we're going to get the רוחניות'דיקע part, the spiritual part of the תורה, how do we prepare ourselves? By starting to study in a level that's possible, that we're able to to connect to. This is why the אלטער רבי and חסידות חב\"ד came this time, because it's a preparation to משיח, to take the ענינים of רוחניות of the תורה, the רוחניות of the creation of the world, and to be able to relate to it so we will become closer and ready for the coming of משיח. Imagine when משיח will come and start showing you, we'll see, not only it says משיח will come, he won't teach us by speaking, we'll see! And משיח is going to teach us and we'll see the level, like I said before, let's use the level of א\"ק, level of אצילות. Someone who never learned חסידות is going to say, \"What's that?\" Oh, משיח is going to have to tell him and start and. What's going to be someone who learned חסידות? And משיח will come and will show him אצילות, not new to me. The only thing is, it says the difference between now and then is the aha. Who said this, the אלטער רבי, the מיטעלער רבי. When משיח will come and we'll see אצילות, what you know what we'll say? \"Ah, that's what it is!\" We learned about it the whole time, but \"ah, now we know it, now we see it.\" Because now we don't really understand it and then we'll see it. But if you don't, you'll always be a step behind. משיח will teach it, everybody, and everybody will get more to רוחניות and get more connected to it. But if we're ahead now already, then we'll always be a step ahead. So that's the reason why, even though we are not in the highest generation, we know that as the generations goes further and further, we get lower and lower, the גמרא says, in the גמרא's time, imagine, אם ראשונים כמלאכים אנו כבני אדם. If the original people in the time, in the גמרא they call it ראשונים, if they're like מלאכים, we're like human beings. אם ראשונים כבני אדם, if they're like human beings, אנו כחמורים, we're donkeys, and not even like the donkey of רבי פנחס בן יאיר, which was a special donkey. We're regular donkeys. So as the generations goes lower and lower, we're not even donkeys, I don't know what we are. And there's a לשון, אכשר דרא, the generation is better now, so now we are כלים to study פנימיות התורה, the secrets of the תורה, the spirituality behind the תורה, the essence of the תורה, what the תורה is למעלה? The answer is, because it's close to משיח, the אייבערשטער gave us a כח, and the אייבערשטער brought the אריז\"ל, and the אייבערשטער brought the בעל שם טוב, and the אייבערשטער brought the אלטער רבי to prepare us to the coming of משיח. And that's why the אריז\"ל writes that מצוה לגלות זאת החכמה, now we have to, because from the אריז\"ל already started getting closer, from the בעל שם טוב we know what it says in חסידישע ספרים, and לאו דוקא in חב\"ד ספרים, but in even other פוילישע ספרים it says that from the time of the בעל שם טוב is a התנוצצות of משיח. התנוצצות means sparks. You know, when you when you make a fire and it goes on something, sparks will bounce back. It goes back, so from משיח's time, it bounced back to a few generations before משיח, the ענינים of משיח. So that's why now we have the ability and the חיוב to study it. And it's all based on the אריז\"ל writes, there's a פסוק, טועמיה חיים זכו, that you should, if you taste it, you'll get, you're זוכה to life. So it says in שולחן ערוך that on Friday, a person should taste from the food of שבת. I know some people are מחמיר a lot in this, they have more than a taste. I know some women make a double טשאלנט, because the first one is eaten up on Friday. But it says you should taste from the fruits, food of שבת, you should taste on ערב שבת. When משיח will come, that's the time of שבת. It says, every שבת in בענטשינג we say, הרחמן הוא ינחילנו ליום שכולו שבת. We're waiting for a day that's full שבת. And we know that in history the six thousand years is parallel to what רמב\"ן says to the six days of the week. So which day of the week are we now? So when it started the year five thousand, started ערב שבת, started Friday, which is close to the time of the אריז\"ל, not exactly, I don't know the dates, it doesn't mean exactly to the day. And that's when it started, we have to start tasting from the food of משיח and start getting ready to the spirituality and understanding of the תורה in the full sense of the עצם התורה and the spirituality of the תורה. When it came to the year five thousand five hundred, it's already Friday morning, because a day has 24 hours, a night and a day, so the year five thousand five hundred came, so it's already half of the day, half of the מעת לעת passed, so that's already Friday morning. Ooh, Friday morning. When the year five thousand seven hundred and fifty came, תש\"נ, what happened then? Then we're ערב שבת אחר חצות. It's already ערב שבת, Friday afternoon. The whole דין of טועמיה חיים זכו, really probably if you eat it on Thursday night, for it's Friday, and Friday morning, it's also, and we have to start, but the real time when the preparation to שבת starts is ערב שבת אחר חצות, Friday afternoon. So from then on, which is Friday afternoon, that's when really, really we're obligated to start getting a taste of the תורה of משיח. And this is why we have to now really, really get into learning פנימיות התורה, because this is going to bring us close to משיח, and the רבי said משיח is on his way, משיח is coming very soon. And if he said it 20 years ago, so now we're 20 years closer. Some people say, \"Well, he said 20 years ago, nothing happened.\" I'm looking the opposite. He said it 20 years ago, so now we're 20 years closer, so אודאי משיח is coming very, very soon. So certainly we shouldn't miss the opportunity, and we have to study פנימיות התורה, which we call קבלה, but not קבלה the way it's in the raw sense, which only great מקובלים could learn. It says you shouldn't learn it till you're 40, and and even nowadays really we don't expect a regular person to learn it, but the פנימיות התורה, the secrets of תורה are there for everyone to learn the way it's put in to חסידות. And it says in the זוהר that, I think אליהו הנביא told רשב״י that when children even will learn your ספר, and יתפרנסון, they will learn it in a way that you feed on it, it means it goes into פנימיות, which means you understand it, that's how משיח will come. And that's what משיח told the בעל שם טוב, דלכשיפוצו מעינותיך חוצה, when your wellsprings, which are the wellsprings of the פנימיות of תורה, will be spread out, that's when I will come. So we really hope and pray that this is going to be very soon. We don't hope and pray, we know for sure, there's no שאלות, משיח is going to come soon, but every word of חסידות that we learn, it'll make him come sooner. So the אייבערשטער should help it to be very, very soon, and we should see משיח צדקנו with our physical eyes במהרה בימינו בקרוב ממש. אמן.